Tucumcari, New Mexico

Here is yet another train station. This time, it's the large Rock Island / Southern Pacific depot in Tucumcari, New Mexico.



According to this page, this station is the only original Spanish architecture Train Depot in New Mexico.

Antonito, Colorado Depot

Here is the Rio Grande station in Antonito, Colorado in 1986. It was built in 1882 and is still there today. The building is 124 years old!



I don't know why it was boarded up at the time. The building otherwise appears to be in good shape. The semaphore signal is especially interesting.

Antonito is the end of the narrow gauge line called the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic which was once part of the Rio Grande as well. The C&TS does not use this station, however. They have a newer one a bit south of this old gem.

Here are some interesting photos of this same station of other sites:

Evidence of third rail to accommodate the narrow gauge.

Photos of various vintages.

Las Vegas - New Mexico, That Is

I have run out of Texas railroad depot photos so I will now move elsewhere. This is the station in Las Vegas, New Mexico which is just down I25 about 111 miles from Raton. Amtrak's Southwest Chief stops here at 12:38 pm westbound and 3:45 pm eastbound. This train runs from Chicago to Los Angeles on the route of the Santa Fe's famed Super Chief.

Train Station in Denton, Texas

Here is yet another train station in Texas, this time in Denton. This is the Texas-Pacific station taken in 1986.



Train stations vary in architecture quite a bit but they also often seem to have some common things about them such as the overhang you see in the picture. They almost always have the name of the town on both ends of the building as well.

Yet Another Waxahachie Railroad Station

Now, this train station is the neatest of the three Waxahachie train stations I have put on this blog. It was built by the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railroad.



There is another station much like it in Corsicana, Texas. See it here.

The T&BV after a bankruptcy, became the Burlington-Rock Island Railroad. It was jointly owned by the Burlington and the Chicago Rock Island & Pacific. Later it was part of the Fort Worth and Denver. Today, it is part of the BNSF Railway.

Another Train Station in Waxahachie

I am pretty sure that this train station is in Waxahachie, Texas. I do not know which railroad owned it.

A Train Station in Waxahachie, Texas

This is one of the train stations I found in Waxahachie back in 1985. It belonged to the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad.

Sherman, Texas

This little depot is really neat. It's in Sherman, Texas. I am not sure which railroad owned it and I doubt if the building is still there. This photo was taken in 1985 and you can see that it is not in very good shape.

Brownwood, Texas Railroad Station

This train station is very large for a town the size of Brownwood. According to this web site, the station served 15 trains a day in its heyday. It was built by the Santa Fe in 1909 and the last passenger train to use it ran in 1968.

Train Station in Bonham, Texas

This is another Texas-Pacific train station, this time in Bonham, Texas. This picture, like the TP station in Paris below were taken in 1985. Both the Paris station and this one are on the same line that ran across Texas not too far from the Oklahoma state line. This one is obviously quite a bit larger than the one in Paris.

Another Station in Paris, Texas

This is the Texas-Pacific train station in Paris, Texas. It is much less interesting looking than the Frisco station in the same town (see below). But, this is what makes train stations interesting. Some are plain, others quite elaborate.

Paris, Texas Train Station

I think this old Frisco train station was quite attractive in 1985 when I took the picture.

It is still there as this link can attest. Scoll down a ways.

San Francisco Zephyr

When Amtrak was formed, their train that ran between Chicago and the San Francisco area was called the San Francisco Zephyr rather than the California Zephyr as today. The original pre-Amtrak California Zephyr ran on the CB&Q from Chicago-Denver, the D&RGW from Denver-Utah and then on WP to California. When Amtrak was formed, the D&RGW did not join so the Amtrak train did not use their rails. Instead the train went through Wyoming on UP and it used SP from Utah to California. This was in 1971.

In 1983, D&RGW finally joined Amtrak and they moved the train to D&RGW rails so that passengers could enjoy the more scenic although slower route. And they renamed the train back to the California Zephyr even though it still ran on SP out west.

Here is a picture of the SF Zephyr in 1981 passing through the Belmont station in Downers Grove, Illinois. I like this picture because of the lighting and the presence of the passenger platform between the rails. It has since been removed. The F40PH up front sports the original Amtrak paint scheme for these locomotives. It is known as Phase I. The second loco is also an F40PH but has the Phase 2 paint scheme - the stripes are different.

Passenger yard completed - sortof

The passenger yard has been completed. It has 4 tracks spaced apart 2.5 inches to allow for easy handling. I am not making use yet of the track closest to the abyss (a drop to the floor). There is no barrier between this track and certain doom for the little HO sized people inhabiting the passenger cars.

I had in mind creating a wall along there using cheap 1" by 36" pieced of wood - better known as yardsticks. I even bought a bunch of them and painted them (rendering them useless as yardsticks). But I have decided that I don't like this idea. Instead, I am going to buy a bunch of girders by Atlas to form a wall with them. These plastic girders will each be held in place by 4 small screws so it will take a while to drill and insert about 100 of them. But I think it will look better. I have used this technique elsewhere on the layout.

I bought one package of girders last time I was at Caboose Hobbies, their last one on the shelf. I need 6 more packages of 4 to complete the wall.

Work Has Begun

After much consideration, work has begin on the expansion of my passenger train yard from 2 to 4 tracks. Right now, what a mess! Sawdust everywhere, tools everywhere, loose track everywhere, cork, screws (not corkscrews), stray pieces of wood, etc., etc.

What is One To Do?

What is one to do when the model railroad layout is basically finished? Well, in truth, there is no such thing as a finished model railroad layout. At least this is true for the one who builds the layout. My current layout might be considered finished by some people but there is always more that can be done. Such things can be small or large. Maybe add some people; maybe add some scale size trash; build a fence; add some more trees; add more lights to buildings; on and on, really.

While more light in buildings would be a good thing, that is not what I have in mind. You see, I have a fondness for passenger trains. I have these:

Santa Fe - an 11 car San Francisco Chief
C&NW - a 4 car commuter train
C&NW - a 5 car streamliner (needs a diner)
C&NW - a 10 car heavyweight train
GN - a 3 car Empire Builder (adding a new car each month until 10 cars)
Amtrak - an 11 car Superliner

There are also some older ones that are "retired" because they are from older and now inferior models:

UP - 12 car "City" train (actually 18 cars at one time!)
Santa Fe - 10 car Grand Canyon Limited
CB&Q/D&RGW/WP - 11 car California Zephyr
Santa Fe - 10 car Super Chief

The layout isn't nearly big enough to have all these trains on it so some of them rest peacefully in their boxes.

What I am thinking about is to have someplace to park them where they can be seen as if in a large passenger station. This would also enable me to trade off trains periodically without having to box or unbox them.

But, how will I do it - that is the question.

Yet Another Load of Coal on the Joint Line

That Union Pacific train I wrote about in my previous posting had 6 locomotives each with 4400 horsepower for a total of 26,400. This is the typical configuration for UP coal trains going south on the Joint Line south of Denver.

Today, I got a nice photo of a southbound BNSF coal train in the exact same place as the UP train - the far south end of the dam at Chatfield State Park. BNSF has a different approach to coal train motive power for the Joint Line. They typically place two locomotives up from and 2 at the end of the train pushing.



This train had this configuration:

At the front of the train:
9954 - SD70MAC built in 1998
9514 - SD70MAC built in 1995

At the rear of the train:
9613 - SD70MAC built in 1995
9331 - SD70ACe built in 2006

The last one, the SD70ACe, is quite new. My picture of it did not turn out well so here is a link to a nice clean one.

The SD70MACs have 4000 horsepower and the SD70ACe has 4300. So this train had a total of 16,300 horsepower - quite a bit less than what UP uses for similar trains.

Notice that these two engines do not have the same paint scheme. The 9514 is one of the earlier SD70MACs that Burlington Northern acquired before its merger with the Santa Fe. The paint scheme was called the "Executive Scheme" because BN had an executive passenger train and the special engines that pulled it were painted similarly to these SD70MACs. Here is a picture of one of those at the Illinois Railway Museum.

The 9954 is a newer SD70MAC. It has one of the "heritage" schemes that BNSF came up with. It combines colors from some of the predecessor railroads such as Santa Fe and Great Northern.

Another Load of Coal Going South

Here is a nice coal train heading south on the joint line just west of Highlands Ranch. It is a Union Pacific train led by UP 6007. This load of coal most likely originated in northwestern Colorado or it could have come from Wyoming.

At the front of the train were similar engines but different models:
6007 - AC44CCTE built in 2003
6485 - AC4400CW built in 2000

In the middle of the train was:
6882 - AC4400CW built in 1995
5939 - AC44CCTE built in 2003
6414 - AC4400CW built in 1995 - ex SP 368

At the end of the train was:
6582 - AC4400CW built in 1997

Union Pacific has about 520 AC44CCTEs and about 850 AC4400CWs. UPs most common model is the SD70M - with over 1400 of them.

Here is the 6007:

Celebrity Engines

The Union Pacific Railroad has painted 6 locomotives in special paint schemes to honor some of the railroads the UP has gobbled up over the past 25 years or so. I saw my first one in person today. It is UP 1989 painted to honor the Denver and Rio Grande Western whose track runs between Denver and Pueblo as part of the joint line. It runs about a mile from my home and this is where I saw the 1989 today as the 4th unit of 4 on a northbound train.

The set of locomotives are all model SD70ACe built in 2005 and 2006. They are:

UP 1982 - for the Missouri Pacific
UP 1983 - for the Western Pacific
UP 1988 - for the Missouri - Kansas - Texas
UP 1989 - for the Denver and Rio Grande Western
UP 1995 - for the Chicago and North Western
UP 1996 - for the Southern Pacific

You can see pictures of them here.

Let me know which one you like best.

I would like to see one commemorating the Union Pacific itself.

A Couple of Train Sightings

While on my bike ride in Chatfield State Park today, I rode the length of the dam. As I began my traversal of the dam, I saw a stopped northbound empty coal train and wondered if it would block my route at the other end of the dam. As I rode on, the train began to move. However, there was another train right behind it and not all that far behind it. I always thought it was unusual to see two trains on the same track so close together. The first northbound train was another of the many BNSF coal trains that utilize the Joint Line. The train behind it turned out to be rather unusual. It was just 7 engines – five SD70MACs and a couple of AC4400CWs.

While all this was going by, a loaded southbound coal train came along on the other track. It consisted mostly of brand new CEFX coal hoppers. The build dates on them were 09-2006. Here is a picture of one.



One of the trailing locomotives was a fairly new SD70Ace:



I really like this picture showing most of the train.



All these photos were taken at the southernmost end of the Chatfield dam.

Moffat Tunnel Area – 9/24/2006

My wife and I spent a good part of the afternoon exploring some semi-back roads up in the mountains looking for some fall colors including the road to the Moffat Tunnel. We found some good colors and even saw a train exit the tunnel. Right after it completed its emergence, the big ventilation system came on to eliminate the fumes from the tunnel. The fumes from one train can be considerable.



The fans are really noisy and when they start; they sound like a jet airplane starting its engines. They run for about 20 minutes and then shutoff. They railroad dispatcher does not let another train through the tunnel until the ventilation is complete.

We had in mind the possibility of doing a little hike up the trail that goes behind the tunnel but it was way too snowy and muddy for that. However, I did go up the trail a little ways to one of the many "restrooms" that are available. Here I am returning.



One of the interesting things about this area is the old railroad route over Rollins Pass, also known as Corona Pass. This sign is at the beginning of this road.



And this is what the road looks like. We didn’t go up this time but I have been up there on my bicycle.

The Texas Zephyr

The Texas Zephyr was a train that ran between Denver, Colorado and Fort Worth, Texas. I have driven between these two cities a number of times and to me, being a railfan, I enjoy the fact that US 287 follows the BNSF line much of the way. I wish I could take the train, though. This is a route not included on Amtrak's map. Before being part of the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe, the line was part of Burlington Northern. Before that, it was two different but related railroads. The Fort Worth and Denver and the Colorado and Southern Railways came together at Texline, Texas which is right on the New Mexico border in far northwestern Texas. The town was started by the FW&D railway and today is the home to about 500 residents. From Texline to Fort Worth, it was the FW&D. From Texline to Denver, it was the C&S except for the part where it shared the tracks with the Santa Fe and Rio Grande railroads.

The route was the home to an overnight passenger train called the Texas Zephyr. In 1950, it left Denver at 12:30 pm and arrived in Fort Worth at 6 am the next morning. Coming back, it left Fort Worth at 3 pm and arrived in Denver at 7:30 the next morning.

Equipment was the following for these daily trains:
4000 HP diesel locomotive (2 E5’s, I believe)
Reclining-seat chair cars
Dining-lounge
Special streamline Pullmans with drawing rooms, compartments, bedrooms, and sections.
All equipment was air-conditioned
No Extra Fare

When I Was Workin’ On the Railroad – Part VI, Leaving

It had always been my intention to return to college to earn a master’s degree. I had in mind an MBA and I ended up attending the University of Wisconsin starting in February, 1982. This was good plan, I thought, because the degree could be achieved in one calendar year since I had already earned a BBA at the University of Michigan.

In January of 1982, I reluctantly gave my notice and then my C&NW career came to an end after two fun years. You know, not everyone can say that their job is fun. I have had a number of software jobs since then and I would not call all of them fun.

While at the University of Wisconsin, I participated in the business school’s on-campus interviews. During this same time, I contacted the C&NW again to inquire about the possibility of returning. I was turned down but not because of my qualifications. Sadly, they had a hiring freeze on at the time so it was not to be. Happily, however, I did get a good job through an on campus interview with Texas Instruments and that began a significant turning point in my career and life. But that’s another story.

Skipping ahead to about 2002, I mentioned to an acquaintance in Colorado where I now live that I had once worked for a railroad in Chicago that didn’t exist anymore because it had become part of the Union Pacific. He said that he had a good friend who worked for the UP in Omaha who had once worked for the C&NW in Chicago. I immediately thought, “How many times had I heard this sort of thing?” He told me the fellow’s name and sure enough, it was someone I had known when I had worked there. In fact, it was the same person I had ridden with in the freight train that I wrote about in my previous post!

I ended up contacting Dean via email and we shared a few memories about people we had worked with way back when. Dean still worked for UP and I suppose he still does though I have lost contact with him once again and do not really know.

When I Was Workin’ On the Railroad – Part V, The Ride to Clinton

During my time working on the Locomotive Utilization System at the C&NW, the business analyst that we were working with found out that some of us had not had the opportunity to "go out on the road". He arranged for my partner and me to ride on a freight train from Proviso out to Clinton and back. This was a ride in the lead or second locomotive for about 120 miles one way.

We met the train at about 5:30 that morning at the west end of Proviso. The train was just about ready to go when we arrived. My partner, Dean and I were to trade between the lead locomotive and the second locomotive which was facing backwards. If I remember correctly the lead loco was a C&NW SD40-2 and the second one was a Union Pacific SD40-2 with a long "snoot" nose.

The ride out was the most eventful and I remember the most about it. Dean and I traded between the locos while the train was still moving although relatively slowly. We had been notified of a derailment that occurred the day before somewhere along the mainline. At some point we moved as fast as 79 mph (which was 4 over the limit). The derailment had been cleaned up but the site was obvious and we had to go through that stretch fairly slowly.

At one point we had a very interesting experience. We were approaching an intersection with a road at perhaps 50 mph. We were on the left hand track of two tracks. On the right hand track was a stopped freight train facing the same direction as our train. It was stopped for a signal short of the road crossing. Also on that same track was another freight train facing the opposite direction. It was stopped for a signal short of the road crossing on the other side. The two stopped trains were facing each other with the road crossing between them. We were moving along on the empty track. There were crossovers that one of the two stopped trains would use to cross over to the other track after we went by.

The interesting part of this passage was the behavior of the people in a car at the crossing as well as that of the experienced train crew. A man and a woman were in a station wagon and had approached the crossing. The gates were not yet down for our approach. The man driving the car slowed down to observe the two stopped trains to make sure they were not moving. He didn't initially spot us coming. When the gate came down for our approach, it came right down on the hood of the station wagon! The engineer saw this and pulled the horn and then hit the floor of the locomotive. So does the head end brakeman.

I was sitting in the left hand seat at the front of the locomotive (engineer on the right, brakeman behind) and I saw the crew hit the deck but I just sat there and I saw what the people in the car did. The woman in the passenger seat got out of the car and started running down the road away from the tracks. Then the man was able to back the car out of harms way. Then we went by the crossing and that was it. No accident.

The engineer thought I was dumb to not have hit the deck along with him. He said that you never know what part of a car might fly up right into the cab – maybe the hood of the car. I told him that I saw that the car driver was obviously going to get out of the way and therefore did not see the need to do anything.

The other thing that stands out about this trip was just how noisy it was in the cab. I don’t think they are quite as noisy these days but there was quite a racket in this loco. Besides the engine itself, there was the radio, hissing brakes, warning bells, horn, and the loud talking engineer who never stopped talking.

While we were in Clinton, Iowa, we met with some people and for the most part, hung around for a while not doing much. I remember that our host spotted what he thought was a problem with one of the cars on a coal train that was slowly passing by. He thought it was "off center". Freight cars are not attached to their trucks. They just have a pin that sits in a hole in the top of the truck – not unlike model train cars except unlike models, there is no screw attaching the car to the truck. If a car is off center, the pin has come out of its hole but is otherwise still sitting on the truck. The next event would be a derailment. He immediately entered one of the buildings to notify someone and he got the train to stop very quickly. Fortunately, it turned out to be a false alarm.

I don’t recall what was on the train going out to Clinton but I believe we caught one of the Falcons going back. The Falcon trains were the hotshot intermodal trains that the C&NW ran to and from the UP in Nebraska. Its destination was Wood Street in Chicago. This was a fast train as well and it doesn't usually stop at Proviso where our cars were parked. It didn't quite stop for us either but it did slow down to about 10 mph for us to hop off at the nearby Berkeley commuter station stop. It was a short walk through the weeds to get back into Proviso where our cars were parked.

The whole day took about 12 hours.

When I Was Workin’ On the Railroad – Part IV, Locomotive Utilization

The most interesting computer system I worked on at the C&NW was the Locomotive Utilization (LU) System. Unfortunately for me, I never saw it to its completion because I left the company to return to school full time to earn a Master’s Degree.

I was one of the key designers and implementers. The railroad was very interested in maximizing the usage of their locomotives. Given the expense of these assets, it was foolish and expensive for the railroad to have idle locomotives. This would even lead to the purchase of more locomotives and such purchases add up very quickly considering that they cost around a million bucks even back in 1981.

The LU System had built into it a roster of the C&NW locomotives as well as locomotives from other railroads that might run on C&NW rails – such as those of the Union Pacific Railroad. The system also knew of all of the locations on every bit of the railroad along with mileage from certain other locations. Users of this system would enter in information about what locos were on what trains and when they went by these various locations. They could use this system to help maximize the locos usage. It also kept track of maintenance requirements so that they could make sure locos got to their maintenance points on time.

For locos of other railroads, the system kept track of horsepower miles and horsepower hours. If a 3000 horsepower locomotive went one mile, that was 3000 horsepower miles and if a 3000 horsepower locomotive spent an hour on the C&NW, that was 3000 horsepower hours. It was these measurements that were used by the railroads to repay each other for pooled locomotives. Every time a UP loco spent time and miles on the C&NW, a similar C&NW loco was supposed to spend the same amount of time and miles on the UP. If an imbalance occurred, one railroad would have to pay the other in cash.

About 20 years later, in about the year 2001, I met a fellow who learned of my interest in railroads. He told me that he knew someone who worked for the Union Pacific Railroad in Omaha. I told him that I worked for the C&NW back in 1980 and 1981. He said that his friend had worked for the C&NW also during that timeframe. It turns out that I actually worked with this person in Chicago. I thought the odds were against that.

I contacted him via email and he informed me among other things that the LU system had worked very well in its day. It’s long gone now as is the C&NW as an independent railroad. It’s part of Union Pacific and there is no doubt a new generation of computer system for the tracking and utilization of locomotives.

When I Was Workin’ On the Railroad – Part III, Warehousing and Intemodal

My first assignment with the C&NW was to be part of a team that developed software for a warehouse inventory system. The railroad had a number of warehouses scattered about the country that stored equipment and materials for maintaining the railroad itself. Think hardware like spikes, rail, sledge hammers, as well as many more items for doing railroad business. This was a great way to get my feet wet with COBOL and Assembly language programming. And this was the first of a series of systems based on this same software architecture.

The second such system that I worked on was a system that kept track of trailers and containers as they arrived and departed from C&NW’s Wood Street intermodal yard (later known as Global I). Every time a truck with a trailer or container entered or exited the yard via railroad or concrete, an entry was made in this system by a clerk. Customers were charged for the time the railroad owned trailers and containers were in use off the railroad premises. So the system kept track of the time.

One of the problems with this system was that there was a significant number of errors in the manual data entry process. Numbers were transposed, for instance. This would result in trailers appearing to leave the yard and never return.

I remember when we first installed the intermodal system in 1980, we had to be at the yard where it was used around the clock. Members of the development team worked in shifts. I had the midnight to 8 am shift. It was a smooth installation so we didn’t have to keep this up very long.

Both of these systems were fun to develop and got my software career off to a great start.

When I Was Workin’ On the Railroad – Part II, Location

When I started working for the C&NW, I worked in the Riverside Plaza Building in downtown Chicago. This was the 400 West Madison Street headquarters address for the C&NW. In the next block west was the C&NW Terminal with an address of 500 West Madison.

The Riverside Plaza Building was completed in 1929 as the Chicago Daily News Building. The newspaper moved to another location sometime in the 60’s or 70’s. This building was the first commercial building erected on air rights over the railroad tracks that led to Union Station from the north. One of the interesting things about this building is that it included a system to carry smoke from steam engines up through the roof.

The building is 26 stories and I worked on the 4th or 5th floor. I remember that they had piped in music playing all day. It got more lively after lunch to help keep people who had large lunches alert and active. Here is a link to information about the building.

Another interesting thing about this building was the mural painted on the ceiling in one of the main hallways. According to some web sites I found, the building originally had an outstanding ceiling mural by John W. Norton, a noted Chicago artist that showed the process of producing a newspaper. It was removed in 1993 for restoration but is currently still in storage because initial restoration bids were deemed too high by the building's management company. It was commissioned for the original tenant, the Chicago Daily News. It was dominated by diagonal lines, and divided into three sections: Gathering the News, Printing the News, & Transporting the News. The mural was there when I worked in the building and was 180x18-feet in size.

Close to the end of my 2 year tenure with the railroad, the offices were moved to a building two blocks north. The building was named One Northwestern Center during the time the C&NW had its offices there. It was one of two nearly identical 18 story buildings that sit next to each other along the Chicago River. They were originally known as the Butler Brothers Buildings. There is a 1928 photo available via this web site. The buildings were completed in 1913. The C&NW occupied the northernmost of the two buildings which is on the right in the photo. I worked on the 3rd or 4th floor.

Both buildings were quite convenient for me. I commuted on the C&NW to the C&NW terminal across the street. I did not even have to go outside to get to the Riverside Plaza Building and I only had to cross the street for the other building.

When I Was Workin’ On the Railroad – Part I, Getting the Job

I graduated from the University of Michigan in December of 1979 with a business degree. My interest was "Information Systems". That was the business school term for software design and programming. I enjoyed it and still work in this area. I failed to get a job through the university’s on-campus interview system. It seems that most of the recruiters who came to the business school were interested in accounting and finance majors which I was not interested in. So, I was out of school with no job and living back with my parents in the Chicago area.

After the holidays were over, my father helped me craft some letters to use in seeking a job to begin my career in software. Since I had a longstanding interest in railroads, I thought I would try to get a software job with one. In 1980, there were still a number of railroads headquartered in Chicago. Most notable were the Santa Fe, the Illinois Central Gulf, and the Chicago and North Western. I sent my letters to all three and threw in the Missouri Pacific for good measure. They were in Saint Louis.

I never heard from the Santa Fe or the MoPac but I did get interviews with ICG and the C&NW. I don’t recall much about the ICG interview but I do remember showing the interviewer some COBOL code that I had written in school. I didn’t get an offer from them.

The C&NW interview went well though I don’t remember much about it, either. I ended up getting an offer for $16,500 per year which I gladly accepted. It was my first professional job.

The hiring process was interesting. In order to avoid any problems in their hiring practices, they put every new employee through certain tests. One of them was an extremely easy math test though it might have been harder for some people. They also gave me a vision test. This is important for personnel who operate the trains. It included a color blindness test. This is when I first found out that I was color blind (at age 22)! This test is also important for train personnel. They said that it was unimportant for me since it was unlikely that I would be operating any trains. They also took fingerprints.

So I started for C&NW the first part of February, 1980 at 400 West Madison Street in Chicago.

Great Northern Empire Builder

I noticed on Walthers web site that the first of the new HO scale empire builder cars has arrived. Walthers is the distributer of these cars so it will take a few days for my pre-ordered car to arrive at Caboose Hobbies in Denver. Walthers is producing accurate models of the entire Great Northern Empire Builder. You can see their artwork here.

The actual full size train was made up of these cars but in some cases there was more than one of each type. For instance, there would have been 3 of the shorter dome cars and two of the 7-4-3-1 sleeper cars and two of the 6-5-2 sleeper cars. The entire train could have been 18 cars! That’s too long for my HO layout so I’m going to make mine 10 cars:

1. Baggage-Dormitory
2. 60-Seat Coach
4. 48-Seat Vista Dome Coach
3. 48-Seat Vista Dome Coach
5. Ranch Coffee Shop Lounge
6. "Lake" Series Diner
7. Full Length Great Dome
8. “River" Series 7-4-3-1 Sleeper
9. "Pass" Series 6-5-2 Sleeper
10. “Coulee" Series 6-4-1 Observation

I might add a plain baggage car if the one they are going to release late in 2007 matches this train (it's not part of the set).

The Empire Builder was a Great Northern train. You can read all about it on this web site. The train ran between Chicago and Seattle. However, the Great Northern Railway only went as far east as St. Paul, Minnesota. The train was operated by the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy between there and Chicago. Since it is this part of the route that I am going to base my model on, my train will be pulled by silver Burlington engines rather than the attractive Great Northern engines shown in the Walthers page.

I acquired a Burlington E7A and an E8A several years ago to pull a model of the California Zephyr. These are Life Like Proto 2000 models. I hadn’t run them for a long time in favor of other models but recently dug them out in preparation for the arrival of the Empire Builder cars. I got motivated to add some additional detailing to them.

Here is a picture of the E7A number 9924A:



Here is a picture of the E8A number 9941B:



These models were very detailed right out of the box. The extra details that I have added so far make them stand out even more. Mostly what I did was add additional grab irons on the cab, nose and roof. There is a lot more that can still be done.

Information about proper placement of these details can be found in various publications and web sites. For instance, here is a link to a picture of the full size 9941B.

It is also interesting to notice how this railroad was inconsistent in its paint schemes. For instance, notice the difference in the color and number of stripes on the front of the locomotives.

Many of the Burlington E7’s and E8’s had their side frames replaced with stainless steel the entire length of the locomotive behind the cab. These two never had that done.

I am looking forward to completing my Empire Builder. Unfortunately, it wall take almost a year since the cars are being release about one per month.

Old Postings

If you are looking for my non-railroad topics, you can find them on my new blog.

The Denver Zephyr

The Denver Zephyr was the Burlington’s top Chicago to Denver train. It was the main competition to the C&NW / UP City of Denver. It’s overall schedule was almost identical in 1950 as shown below. It traveled the route at an average speed of 63 mph.
Station	Leave	Total Miles	Miles	Minutes	Avg Speed
Chicago	5:00 PM
Galesburg, IL	7:07 PM	162	162	127	77
Burlington, IA	7:51 PM	206	44	44	60
Ottumwa, IA	8:56 PM	280	74	65	68
Creston, IA	10:42 PM	393	113	106	64
Council Bluffs, IA	12:08 AM	492	99	86	69
Omaha, NE	12:30 AM	496	4	22	11
Lincoln, NE	1:45 AM	551	55	75	44
Hastings, NE	3:23 AM	648	97	98	59
Holdrege, NE	4:12 AM	702	54	49	66
McCook, NE	5:32 AM	779	77	82	56
Akron, CO	6:40 AM	922	143	128	67
Fort Morgan, CO	7:13 AM	956	34	33	62
Denver, CO	8:30 AM	1034	78	77	61
Today, Amtrak’s California Zephyr is the only train to run between Chicago and Denver. Its schedule is shown below. It is a bit slower but not all that much – at least when it is on time. It travels the route at an average speed of 56 mph. Not all Amtrak stops are included. They stop at more places than the Denver Zephyr did. They also eliminated a couple of stops.
Station	Leave	Total Miles	Miles	Minutes	Avg Speed
Chicago	1:50 PM
Galesburg, IL	4:28 PM	162	162	158	62
Burlington, IA	5:15 PM	206	44	47	56
Ottumwa, IA	6:43 PM	280	74	88	50
Creston, IA	8:31 PM	393	113	108	63
Omaha, NE	10:19 PM	496	103	108	57
Lincoln, NE	12:18 AM	551	55	119	28
Hastings, NE	1:57 AM	648	97	99	59
Holdrege, NE	2:44 AM	702	54	47	69
McCook, NE	3:53 AM	779	77	69	67
Fort Morgan, CO	5:15 AM	956	177	138	77
Denver, CO	7:30 AM	1034	78	135	35

C&NW Passenger Trains

Unfortunately, I think, a lot of the most interesting railroads have been merged out of existence into a handful of mega railroads. For instance, the current Union Pacific Railroad consists of the old original Union Pacific plus Chicago and North Western, Missouri Pacific, Missouri-Kansas-Texas, Western Pacific, Southern Pacific, and Denver and Rio Grande Western. These railroads include numerous other railroads as well.
My original and current favorite is the Chicago and North Western. It’s because I grew up near the C&NW mainline in the Chicago area and it has a rich history of passenger trains. I also worked for them for a couple of years in the early 1980’s.
The C&NW has a long history that goes back more than 150 years. When it was absorbed into Union Pacific in 1995, it was one of the oldest companies in the United States. How many companies can you think of that still exist that are over 150 years old an still operate with the same name as 150 years ago?
The C&NW line that went west out to Omaha, Nebraska was the host of many famous passenger trains that originated in Chicago including the “City” trains that were operated in conjunction with Union Pacific: City of Los Angeles, City of San Francisco, City of Portland, City of Denver. There were also trains like the Pacific Limited (Chicago to LA), San Francisco Challenger, San Francisco Overland Limited, Los Angeles Challenger, Los Angeles Overland Limited, The Columbine (to Denver), The Portland Rose, The Forty Niner (to San Francisco). They also had trains that went north and northwest to Wisconsin and Minnesota. Trains like The 400, The Viking, The Victory, and the North Western Limited. These were the "big" and famous trains on the C&NW. There were lots of other trains that had names and many that had only numbers.
Not a single one of these trains made it to the Amtrak era. And, I never saw a single one of the big named trains other than in pictures.
So I have a model of one of them using Walthers’ passenger cars and Proto 2000 E6, E7 and E8 locomotives.
In February of 1950, the westbound City of Denver, train 111, had the schedule shown below. The train was turned over to Union Pacific in Omaha. The train had an overall average speed of 64 mph for the 1048 mile run from Chicago to Denver. This was one of the faster Chicago to Denver trains in 1950.
Station	Leave	Total Miles	Miles	Minutes	Avg Speed
Chicago	5:00 PM
Sterling, IL	6:37 PM	110	110	97	68
Clinton, IA	7:04 PM	138	28	27	62
Cedar Rapids, IA	8:15 PM	219	81	71	68
Marshalltown, IA	9:18 PM	289	70	63	67
Ames, IA	9:51 PM	327	38	33	69
Boone, IA	10:10 PM	340	13	19	41
Council Bluffs, IA	12:17 AM	485	145	127	69
Omaha, NE	12:30 AM	488	3	13	14
Columbus, NE	1:55 AM	570	82	85	58
Grand Island, NE	2:50 AM	632	62	55	68
Kearney, NE	3:28 AM	674	42	38	66
North Platte, NE	4:47 AM	769	95	79	72
Julesburg, CO	5:00 AM	851	82	73	67
Sterling, CO	5:55 AM	908	57	55	62
La Salle, CO	7:20 AM	1001	93	85	66
Denver, CO	8:30 AM	1048	47	70	40

Railfanning August 27, 2006

Spent a good part of today railfanning the Moffat subdivision of the Union Pacific. Here is a picture of Amtrak’s California Zephyr running at least 2 hours late. This photo was taken at Crescent, one of the sidings that the trains encounter on their way up to the Moffat Tunnel. The equipment on this train has seen better days. Some corrosion and flaking paint. I hope they are in better condition inside.



There were some nice freights up there too such as this coal train also at Crescent.




I saw several of these coal trains. Most were empties but one was loaded.

Up at the Moffat Tunnel, it was 50 degrees compared to 73 back down in Denver. I walked a little ways up the trail that begins here and ends up at Arapaho Lakes about 7 miles away. I just went around to the backside of the tunnel portal to see what I could see. While I was there, the tunnel’s ventilation fan was operating. It’s quite noisy and runs 20 minutes or so until the tunnel is ventilated. They do this after each train runs through in order to avoid breathing problems for the railroad personnel. The Moffat Tunnel is about 6 miles long and comes out at Winter Park on the other side of the Continental Divide. No train came through the tunnel while I was there.

I drove up the old Rollins Pass road about a half mile. The road is in as bad of shape as ever. Lots of pot holes and rocks. Nice view of the railroad leading to the tunnel though. This road was the railroad itself before the tunnel was completed in 1927. You can read my story of cycling up Rollins pass if you'd like.

Along the Joint Line 1

Here is a set of locomotives that are often seen south of Denver doing switching duties at various industries. It's an interesting set because the three are quite different looking with three different heritages. This photo was taken on August 23, 2006.


The Rio Grande engine is a GP40-2 with 3000 horsepower. It has been renumbered via a patch to Union Pacific 1348. It used to have Rio Grande number 3126 and was built in 1974.

The Cotton Belt engine has also been patched by Union Pacific to number 1526. This engine was originally built as a GP40 in 1967. It had a series of owners and numbers beginning with Louisville and Nashville 3024, then Seaboard 6820, then CSX 6820. Then Cotton Belt got it and numbered it 7291. It was rebuilt in 1991 into what the railroad calls a GP40-2M. It has 3000 horsepower.

The Union Pacific 1924 engine is a GP60 that was built in 1988 as Cotton Belt 9622. It used to look a lot like the Cotton Belt engine in the photo. It spent about a year as Union Pacific 5724 before getting the number shown here. GP60's have 3800 horsepower.

Where Were Those Trains Going?

I remember vividly right after going to bed hearing the sound of trains going through Lombard. Our house was about 4 blocks from the tracks where there were frequent trains. There was always a train going by when I was too far away to see what sort of train it was. They did not often blow their horns through Lombard and the other western suburbs. Lombard was a bedroom community and people were aware of the need to be cautious by these high speed tracks. But especially late at night, you could hear the trains anyway. It was the sound of the diesel locomotives and the sound of the train’s wheels hitting the joints in the still-jointed tracks. I could tell if it was just another commuter train heading out to West Chicago or Geneva or towards Chicago. The sound of the F7’s and E8’s were distinctive and recognizable because of the sound of their acceleration away from the Lombard station. Freight trains were different because they made a steady sound with little or no acceleration. They might have had their terminus as close as Proviso Yard about 10 miles east or they might have gone all the way into Chicago. They also could have gone to any number of far away points west but most often to Omaha where the train would be turned over to the Union Pacific to go even farther west – even as far as California.

Railroad Interest - Part 2

I grew up in Lombard, Illinois. Lombard had three railroads running through it at one time. The only one that still exists today is the Union Pacific line that runs between Chicago and Omaha and points farther west. This was part of the original transcontinental railroad and was known as the Chicago and North Western when I was growing up. It was absorbed into the Union Pacific in 1995.

Lombard also had a single track line usually know as the Great Western or, more formally, the Chicago Great Western. This line ran from Chicago out into Iowa and is now a bike trail through Lombard. It was merged into the Chicago and North Western in 1968 and gradually abandoned over the next decade or so.

There was an interurban railroad that ran through Lombard. The Chicago, Aurora and Elgin. We called it the "Roarin Elgin". This was an electric line that ran between its namesake cities. It ceased operating in 1957 and in the 60’s was converted into a trail called the Illinois Prairie Path. Great for hiking and biking.

All three of these lines were fascinating for me to poke around. I never saw a train on the CA&E but did see some on the CGW after it was merged into the C&NW. Trains on that line were rare. The C&NW, of course, had lots of trains including commuter trains and freight. I used to ride my bicycle up along the C&NW after school to watch a train or two and the first of the evening rush hour commuter trains. I liked the Elizabeth Street crossing because you could see the farthest at this point where the track curved slightly. From here you could see well past Grace Street to the east and a good ways into Glen Ellyn to the west.

The Prairie Path was fun to ride my bicycle on as well since over in the next two suburbs west, Glen Ellyn and Wheaton, it was adjacent to the C&NW tracks. So I could ride over there and see some trains on the C&NW as well.

I used to notice railroad artifacts along these lines. One of the interesting items on the CA&E is the remains of an old station in Glen Ellyn just east of Hill Avenue. As of about 2003, it was still there. It was much more overgrown that it was 20 years earlier. It consists of some brickwork that must have formed an arch over the entry to the station. That’s it. You could also find the remains of station platforms at various places through Lombard.

One of the unusual things about the C&NW line is the lack of lighted signals. Instead, they have signals in the cabs of the locomotives which receive their indications through low voltage current in the track. But it wasn’t always this way. Over in Elmhurst, you can see signal bridges still in place. Years ago, I noticed concrete supports along the right of way just west of Lombard. These had to be for signals that were there at one time, long ago.

The C&NW track through Lombard is where I found some date nails. These were nails with the number 57 on top representing 1957. The pole line on the south side of the tracks was put up by Western Union. The poles had date nails in them as well - 42 for 1942.

My Interest in Railroads - Part 1

I have long been interested in many aspects of railroads and railroading. What is it that I like about them and why? The origins of my interest in railroads goes back to when I was a kid. It must have been about 1964 or so when I was about 7 years old when I got a Lionel trainset for Christmas. It ran in a figure 8 with a single steam locomotive and a set of freight cars. I still have one of the cars – a Sunoco tank car. I don’t know the origin of this trainset but I believe the set was used since the cars were not particularly pristine or even fully functional. I liked it anyway.

A few years later, I found a report that my brother had done for school about railroads. I found this fascinating because everything my older brother did was fascinating by definition. I had to do a lot of things that he did and I was interested in many of the things that he was interested in because, well, he was cool – simple as that. He was (and still is) 12 years older than me. To prepare this report, he acquired numerous booklets and other information directly from the railroads. So, I had to do that as well. I wrote to the railroads, and there were lots of them back then, and asked them for whatever information they could send me. They sent some of the same booklets published by the Association of American Railroads as well as timetables, photographs, and posters - all for free. I still have a lot of this material that dates back to the late 60's.

These are some of the things that sparked my interest in railroads.

Mischief Along the Railroad

My interest in railroads began sometime in the 60’s. Where that interest comes from will be the subject of another posting. Sometime in about 1970 when I was 13, there were three of us (Randy, Leif and I) who rode our bikes up to the Chicago and North Western triple track mainline in Lombard, Illinois – about 5 or 6 blocks from where we lived. It was late in the day during the week so there were numerous lengthy commuter trains bringing workers home from Chicago to the suburbs. This did not deter us from walking right down the tracks while leaving our bikes at the station.

After walking about a quarter of a mile, one of us found a fusee - a railroad flare - lying on the ballast along one of the three tracks. Why it was there, we didn’t know. What it was for, we didn’t know. It had never been used.

Well, it hadn't been used until we lit the thing. Now, these things burn very hot and we found an empty soda can nearby and found that it could burn a hole in it quite easily. It was entertaining for a while but we left it behind to finish burning while we continued walking on down the tracks.

A little while later, here comes a man walking down the tracks towards us. When he gets close to us, he whips out his badge and identifies himself as a policeman with the C&NW police department. He said that he drove all the way from Chicago to find out what we were up to. He explained to us what fusees were for – emergencies that require trains to stop when sighted. He took our names down and gave us some well deserved scolding about the dangers of hanging out on railroad tracks – especially ones where trains go as fast as they sometimes did in Lombard. He also cautioned us about putting stuff on the tracks saying that even a penny can cause problems. He then told us that if we wanted to watch trains, which is what we were really interested in doing, that we should do it from the station platform or off railroad property. He realized that we were just kids who did not realize the meaning of the fusee and let us go on own way. He did tell us that he didn’t want to see our names come across his desk again.

Not feeling particularly guilty about all of this, we went back to the station and waited for another train or two. The train that went all the way to Clinton, Iowa on the center track came through a lot slower than usual that evening.

Then we went home and that is when we found out that the railroad cop had called our parents.

In 1980, when I actually went to work for the same railroad, the subject did not come up.

Acequia, Colorado

An acequia is a community operated waterway used in the American Southwest for irrigation. Acequias are usually historically engineered canals that carry snow runoff or river water to distant fields.

There is a location along the nearby railroad joint line that is called Acequia. It is just southwest of Highlands Ranch, Colorado. At one time on both railroad lines, there were sidings at this location. I have heard railroad personnel refer to this location occasionally as Acequia. Here is the location on a topographic map. Acequia is clarly marked and you can see both railroad lines on the map. If you zoom in enough, you can see that both railroads had sidings. The western track, currently owned by Union Pacific, was originally built by the Denver and Rio Grande Western. The eastern track, currently owned by Burlington Northern and Santa Fe, was originally built by a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.

Also on the map, you can see that near Acequia, the Highline Canal runs between the two tracks and then turns to the west and the one track goes over the canal. Railroads often named places after some geographical feature. In this case the canal. The canal was built through here about 1880. The Rio Grande track was built in 1871. The other track, built by a subsidiary of the Santa Fe Railway was built in 1887.

I rode my bike to near this location this evening. It's a ride of about 5 miles from home if I go the long way. I followed the Highline Canal trail all the way to a place where the canal trail is no longer rideable because of the presence of evil weeds that contain a plethora of "goat heads" (which I will write about in another posting). About 1/4 mile south of where I stopped is the actual location of Acequia. Then a little ways farther south, the canal turns under the track as stated above and then it heads through a tunnel under a ridge and under Plum Creek. That’s why the trail is really broken at this point. See this satellite photo.

One of the cool things about the ride tonight was the presence of three large full-racked elk that were hanging around. They were quite wary of me being there and moved off into the nearby woods as I rode by. I was never closer than about 150 yards.

Date Nails

One day in about 1975 my father and I were walking along the Ann Arbor Railroad in Ann Arbor, Michigan. We were looking for discarded insulators when my father noticed a nail in one of the railroad ties with a number on top of it. We soon noticed that these nails were in many of the ties and we were able to pull out a few using just our fingers. A new hobby was born!

In the next several years, I spent a lot of time walking various railroad tracks in numerous states looking for and pulling these nails. Besides Michigan, I looked for date nails in Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Texas, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, New York, Wisconsin, Colorado and Ontario. I pulled hundreds of nails from these railroads (and maybe others):

Chicago and North Western
Grand Trunk Western
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific (The Milwaukee Road)
New York Central
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis (Big 4 Route)
Michigan Central
Ann Arbor
Wabash
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe
Elgin, Joliet, and Eastern
Chicago and Illinois Midland
Illinois Central
Great Western Railroad
Canadian National
Erie
Chicago, South Shore and South Bend
St. Louis and Southwestern (Cotton Belt)
Southern Pacific
Texas Pacific
Detriot, Toledo, and Ironton
Detroit and Toledo Shoreline
Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh
New York, Chicago and St. Louis (Nickel Plate Road)

I had joined the Texas Date Nail Collector’s Association back then so I had many contacts with other collectors. I participated in trading nails with these other collectors and accumulated nails from many other railroads by trading extras that I had collected myself. The nails from the Grand Trunk Western were the easiest to trade for some reason.

The oldest nail I ever found still in the track was a "6" representing 1906. The second oldest was a "13" on the same line not far from where I found the "6". Both from a Big Four branch line in Michigan.

I haven’t collected date nails for many years but I still have the collection. You can read all about date nails on this page and you can find some photos of part of my collection here.

Insulators

One of the offshoots of my interest in railroads is a past interest in collecting insulators. You know, those glass or porcelain thingamabobs on telephone poles. There are lots of people who collect these and there are even insulator shows from time to time. I went to one in Houston one time and it was very interesting seeing some of the rarer insulators on display.

I got interested in these things sometime in the late 60’s or early 70’s when I found some lying around somewhere – probably along the railroad tracks. My father and I embarked on a number of mostly unsuccessful insulator hunts. Most of the ones we saw were still in use and it would have been difficult and illegal to collect those. We thought any discarded insulators along the way were fair game, though.

There were several good finds that we had. I remember one time, my father somehow got word that the Chicago and North Western Railway had taken down some poles and left the insulators lying at the base of the poles. This was somewhere out west of Sterling, Illinois. We made a trip out there and collected about 100 insulators most of which I no longer have. I kept only the better ones that were not chipped or were unusual in some way. I recall that a lot of them had a spiral groove to hold the wire. And some of these had the name HEMINGRAY with a backwards E.

Another of our collecting successes was along the Chicago Great Western Railway. This particular part of that railroad was abandoned in the early 70’s and the wires on the poles along the right-of-way were cut at intersections. So, we were confident that there was no electricity in them. But how to get the insulators off the pole without lugging a ladder around? We created a 10 or 12 foot pole with a loop of rubber insulated wire on the end. The wire was slipped over the insulator and then twisted tight on the glass and then turned. We were able to slowly unscrew and remove the insulator in this way. There were some neat porcelain insulators along this line that looked hand made. Still have them.

Eventually I lost interest in collecting these since they were taking up so much room and they were getting harder to find. I still looked for them in every antique shop I went in and occasionally would find an interesting one. I have acquired several purple ones this way.

When I moved to Texas, I was driving around with my wife one day and spotted a bunch of poles with insulators lying along the Santa Fe railway northeast of Dallas. Couldn’t resist grabbing a few. We went back there and hiked here and there along the line picking up a few select others as well. This line runs from Dallas to Paris, Texas. This kindled a renewed interest in collecting these for a while but it faded again.

I have some of the better insulators on display on my display shelves in my model train room.

Waterton Canyon

Waterton Canyon was carved by the South Platte River southwest of Denver. The mouth of the canyon is at the far south end of Wadsworth Blvd. several miles south of C470 near the Lockheed Martin facilities. Some information about Waterton Canyon is readily available on the internet. You can read about it being the beginning of the Colorado Trail, how you can do some good mountain biking once you reach the Strontia Springs Dam, how the road is closed to automobiles, how the big dam at Strontia Springs is owned by the Denver Water Board, etc. These things are easy to see for anyone who visits the canyon.

Here are some lesser known facts about Waterton Canyon:

1. The start of the canyon is at a location known as Kassler. This was a water treatment facility built in 1889. The facility is not used for water treatment anymore but there are still some active buildings there.

2. The Highline Canal has its start about a mile and a half up the canyon. Once you get up there a ways, you can see a concrete wall on the other side of the river. This is actually the wall of the canal. The canal’s water is diverted through a tunnel upstream a bit further. You can see where the water exits the tunnel at the location where two large pipes cross the road. This canal is about 70 miles long and it ends up near the Denver airport. The canal was built between 1879 and 1883.

3. Those two large pipes are diversions of their own. One of them feeds into Marston Lake in Littleton. Where the other one goes, I don’t know.

4. A little ways before the pipes cross the road, you might notice what appear to be bridge abutments parallel to the road on the side opposite the river. These concrete abutments supported yet another large pipeline once upon a time. You can see pictures of them at the Denver Public libraries historic photo website.

5. The road up Waterton Canyon is on the old railroad grade of the Colorado and Southern. It was built originally as the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railway. The railroad eventually made it all the way to Gunnison via Buena Vista and the Alpine Tunnel. It was built through Waterton about 1878 and taken up from the canyon by about 1940.

6. There was a large hotel at Strontia Springs at one time. No evidence of it now. The big concrete dam is called the Strontia Springs Dam.

7. Strontia Springs was formerly called Deansbury.

8. Cell phones don't work in the canyon.

Favorite Railfanning Spots

I live in Colorado near Denver and there are a few good railfanning spots that I especially like. The first is in the Palmer Lake area and the other is in Coal Creek Canyon at Crescent.

Palmer Lake is where the north-south BNSF-UP Joint Line goes from two separate tracks into a single track. This happens just north of the lake in Palmer Lake. It’s a good place for several reasons. There is good parking right there at this park location. You can walk completely around the lake and up and down the tracks in a park trail without trespassing on the railroad right of way. Along this path are numerous good photo vantage points. Second. This location is the top of the hill that goes from Denver all the way south to this location. Southbound coal trains are moving really slow at this point are quite loud as they strain to overcome the hill. BNSF trains often stop about a mile north in “the sag” to cool off before making the final climb. It’s also neat to hear the loud train horns echoing off the nearby foothills.

The other location is in Crescent. This location is on Union Pacific’s (ex Rio Grande) track that heads west of Denver into the tunnel district. Crescent is at a road crossing between tunnels 18 and 19 and is another neat place to photograph some trains from a higher vantage point.

A third place is much closer to home in Highlands Ranch. The same Joint Line I mentioned above has its two tracks close together just about a mile away. There is a nice bike trail practically along the tracks along the Highline Canal and on top of Chatfield Dam from which you can see trains. I have seen many while on my bike rides over there but haven’t done much photography from there.

"cajrrman"

Once upon a time, my personal email address was cajrailfan. That's my initials followed by my hobby. However, eventually, I got so many spams at that address that I ended up abandoning it. You can still find some stuff on Google Web and Google Groups with that id in the search key. I ended up changing it to cajrrman. My initials, followed by "rr" for railroad, followed by "man" for man. That's been my mark of presence on the internet ever since.

I created a website using this id and you can find my other much older web page here. I haven't updated it lately and a few things are definitely out of date. But you can still find a collection of some of my railroad photographs that I have taken over the years. That page has had over 30,000 hits. I'll do an update to it sometime this summer once it stops raining and I can get out and take a few good railroad photos at one of my favorite spots.